Digital Commons Network^™

Vulnerability, Canadian Disaster Law And The Beast, Jocelyn Stacey

All Faculty Publications

This article is the first step in a major research project on Canadian disaster law. As such, the article's first objective is to map the terrain of the law in Canada that governs disasters. To provide context for this exercise in mapping, the article focuses on the circumstances surrounding the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire ('the Beast'). Focusing on the 'the Beast' also gives rise to the article's second objective: a critical examination of the ways in which Canadian disaster law fails to reflect foundational social science research on disaster harm. The article argues that the current framework of Canadian law …

And At Once My Chains Were Loosed: How The Black Panther Party Freed Me From My Colonized Mind, Linda Garrett

Doctoral Dissertations

The Black Panther Party was an iconic civil rights organization that started in Oakland, California, in 1966. Founded by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Party was a political organization that sought to serve the community and educate marginalized groups about their power and potential. This study examined the seminal texts about the creation of the Party that were written by the Party’s founders: Seize the Time (Seale, 1970), Revolutionary Suicide (Newton, 2009) and War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America (Newton, 1980). Document analysis of these texts identified the main themes of preparation, connection, love the …

Offshore Wind Energy: Simulating Local Offshore Wind Turbine, Ian P. Aquino

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Dominion Virginia Energy is looking at the possible creation of an offshore wind plant as a renewable source of electricity to be located off the coast of Virginia Beach. This thesis reports on a computer simulation based on local wind conditions and possible single wind turbine installation.

The National Buoy Data Center keeps records of the local wind conditions gathered in real time and available to the public. These data give a general overview of the wind conditions in Virginia Beach which is used to simulate atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) flow conditions and is subsequently used as input data for …

Human-Intelligence And Machine-Intelligence Decision Governance Formal Ontology, Faisal Mahmud

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Since the beginning of the human race, decision making and rational thinking played a pivotal role for mankind to either exist and succeed or fail and become extinct. Self-awareness, cognitive thinking, creativity, and emotional magnitude allowed us to advance civilization and to take further steps toward achieving previously unreachable goals. From the invention of wheels to rockets and telegraph to satellite, all technological ventures went through many upgrades and updates. Recently, increasing computer CPU power and memory capacity contributed to smarter and faster computing appliances that, in turn, have accelerated the integration into and use of artificial intelligence (AI) in …

Measuring Vulnerability Interdependence: To What Extent Do Chinese Investments In Africa Make China Vulnerable?, Nurullah Ayyilmaz

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The pace of Chinese investments in Africa accelerated after the 2000s as one of many consequences of China’s “going out” policy. The importance of Sino-African investment relationship has been signified by conveying large-scale tri-annual collective dialogue forum, named Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), first in 2000. It is generally assumed that Africa needs China, mostly due to being recipient of Chinese investments, but what about the opposite and what would that mean for China? This dissertation looks at the bilateral relationship between China and Africa from the perspective of creating vulnerability for the investor party. Accordingly, the research questions …

Script Analysis Of Open-Air Drug Selling: A Systematic Social Observation Of Cctv Footage, Victoria A. Sytsma, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Objectives: Through the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) video foo- tage, the current study builds upon the drug transaction work of Piza and Sytsma by developing a crime script for open-air drug selling.

Methods: Researchers conducted a systematic social observation of CCTV footage of open-air drug markets in Newark, NJ. The data were used to identify sequential stages of drug transactions. Fisher’s exact tests measured whether buyer and seller activities during specific acts of the drug transaction event were related to activities seen in subsequent stages.

Results: This study finds three distinct acts to open-air drug events. During the pretransaction …

The Crime Prevention Effect Of Cctv In Public Places: A Propensity Score Analysis, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

This study measures the effect of CCTV in Newark, NJ across three separate crime categories: auto theft, theft from auto, and violent crime. CCTV viewsheds, denoting camera line-of-sight, were units of analysis. Viewsheds for treatment units were created by digitizing live CCTV footage within a geographic information system (GIS). Control viewsheds were created with GIS tools and aerial imagery from Google maps. Treatment cases were matched with control cases via propensity score matching (PSM) to ensure statistical equivalency between groups. Effect was measured via odds ratios and average treatment on the treated statistics. Findings offer modest support for CCTV as …

Measuring The Effect Heterogeneity Of Police Enforcement Actions Across Spatial Contexts, Eric L. Piza

Publications and Research

Purpose: This study tests whether the effect of police actions is influenced by similar crime generators and attractors (CGAs) that influence crime. Said differently, in recognition that the presence of CGAs presents higher risk of crime at certain places, we test whether CGAs similarly create a situation where specific police enforcement actions are more effective at certain types of places than others.

Methods: Using longitudinal logistic regression models incorporating panel data, we measure the effect of various police enforcement actions on gun violence in Newark, NJ. Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) was further used to test whether the effect of the …

One Staff, Two Branches: The Queens Borough Public Library And New York City's Fiscal Crisis Of The 1970s, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

During the fiscal crisis of the 1970s, New York City imposed deep budget cuts on the three library systems: the New York Public Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Queens Borough Public Library. As the city cut budgets, the public demanded that libraries be kept open, and elected officials struggled to do both. The Queens Library’s staff was reduced from over 1,100 to barely 700, with branches open only two or three days a week, with one staff serving both. New buildings remained vacant because the library lacked funds to operate them. When the library proposed closing some branches, …

Taiwan – Community-Building, Civil Society, And Civic Activism: Promises And Predicaments, Anru Lee

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Comedian Hosts And The Demotic Turn, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Podcasting is a showcase for what cultural studies scholar Graeme Turner coined “the demotic turn” or the increasing visibility of the "ordinary person" in the today’s media landscape. Collins argues that the emergence of a particular breed of podcasts – comedian-hosted interviews with celebrities – function in an “off-label” manner as a form of self-help or vicarious therapy. The emergence and rapid growth of this genre can attributed to three main factors: a confessional culture, the triumph of experience over expertise, and the democratization allowed by the form’s technology. She explores the link between emotional intimacy and comedy, and analyzes …

Cuneiform And The Rise Of Early Alphabets In The Greater Arabian Peninsula: A Visual Investigation, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

Scholars trace the roots of most historical and modern alphabets in the Near East and Europe, including Arabic and Latin, to a single obscure script, namely the Proto-Sinaitic or Proto-Canaanite script. This presumed script was attested by Western scholars in the early 20^th Century following the discovery in 1905-06 of a few, very short graffiti inscriptions at “Serabit el-Khadim” in the Sinai Peninsula and the subsequent discovery in 1999 of a few similar ones at “Wadi el-Hol” in the middle of Egypt. According to these scholars, Proto-Sinaitic was derived from the Egyptian Hieroglyphs writing system between 18^th-15 …

Effects Of Geography On Mental Health Disparities On Sexual Minorities In New York City, Jacob Felson, Amy Adamczyk

Publications and Research

Gay and lesbian individuals have higher rates of psychological distress than do heterosexual individuals. The minority stress hypothesis attributes this disparity to adversity related stress experienced by sexual minorities. In support of this idea, research in the U.S. has generally found that mental health disparities between sexual minorities and others are narrower in places where tolerance is relatively high. However, few studies have examined disparities between sexual minorities and others in neighborhoods where sexual minorities are most highly concentrated. Likewise, little research attention has been given to disparities for people who move to more tolerant places from less tolerant states …

Spatial And Temporal Variability Of The Snow Environment In The Western Canadian Arctic, Philip Mann

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Snow cover in the Western Canadian Arctic is a significant input to the hydrological mass balance, it produces shelter and habitat for animals and humans, and supports interactions with vegetation and climate. The Arctic-tundra snow cover is greatly impacted by wind erosion, redistribution and deposition of snow during high wind events over the winter months. As a result, the end of winter snow cover is characterised by significant small-scale (on the order of a few meters) spatial variations in snow cover depth, density, and thus snow water equivalent (SWE), and runoff. Future climate related changes to snow cover depth and …

It Takes A Village-Schooling Out Of Place: School Experiences Of Black African Youth In Waterloo Region, Olufunke Oba 5726040

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examined experiences of alienation among Black African youth in Waterloo region schools. This study is timely and relevant considering the rapid influx of Black Africans into the region in response to government initiatives to redirect immigrants to smaller communities. The research addressed the dearth of scholarship on experiences of Black Africans outside the major metropolitan areas by employing Afrocentric and critical race theories to explore relationships between race and youth experiences of alienation. The dissertation study utilized elder facilitated youth dialogue forum (adaptation of focus group) and in-depth storytelling (which honours African orality) to access the meanings seventeen …

Situating Community Resilience Within The Political Landscape: An Investigation Of Rural Livelihoods And Agency In Chile's Bíobío And Araucanía Regions, Julia Ercolani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Since the establishment of Pinochet’s dictatorship and its neoliberal experiment in 1973, Chile has experienced unprecedented growth in an increasingly resource-extractive economy, often through the expropriation and exploitation of the traditional territories of peasant farmers and the Indigenous Mapuche people. Through a lens of resilience, this study explores how the political and economic landscape of the country shapes rural livelihoods in six communities across two regions, as well as its implications for resilience at the community level. At the same time, it seeks to uncover how rural peoples actively respond to these threats and foster resilience within their households and …

Spatial Modelling And Wildlife Health Surveillance: A Case Study Of White Nose Syndrome In Ontario, Lauren Yee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Wildlife data is often limited by survey effort, small sample sizes, and spatial biases associated with collection and missing data. These factors can create unique challenges from a surveillance perspective when trying to extract spatial patterns of habitat suitability and disease distributions for conservation and management purposes. This thesis examined data quality from a wildlife health database in the context of spatial analysis of wildlife disease. Spatial analysis of the data to predict habitat suitability of bats and white nose syndrome afflicted bats was examined by using the MaxEnt modelling method. Methods to reduce spatial bias were examined and specific …

Hepatitis C Testing And Treatment Access Among People Who Inject Drugs, Monika Roerig

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Hepatitis C (HCV) remains a global issue as it affects 2-3% of the world’s population. Despite Canada’s universal access to healthcare, barriers to accessing testing and treatment for HCV has contributed to approximately 250,000 Canadians living with chronic HCV. People who inject drugs (PWID) account for about 60% of all HCV cases in Canada, making them the primary target for public health interventions, namely prevention and harm reduction. Harm reduction efforts have proven effective to reduce the incidence of infectious diseases and to prevent overdoses, but there remains a large proportion of individuals living with the virus who are unaware …

The Effects Of Fire On Snow Accumulation, Snowmelt And Ground Thaw On A Peat Plateau In Subarctic Canada, Elyse Mathieu

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

During the past century, the highest rates of warming have occurred at latitudes above 60^oN, where air temperatures have risen at twice the rate of other regions. In northwestern Canada, this warming has coincided with an increase in the frequency, size and severity of wildfires. The influence of such fires on the trajectory of on-going permafrost thaw is not well understood. As a consequence, the combined impacts of climate warming induced permafrost thaw and possible feedbacks arising from wildfires cannot be properly assessed. This study examines the impact of a 2.7 ha low-severity wildfire (July 2014) on water …

Beyond Muslim Xenophobia And Contemporary Parochialism: Aga Khan Iv, The Ismā‘Īlīs, And The Making Of A Cosmopolitan Ethic, Sahir Dewji

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Aga Khan IV is the forty-ninth hereditary Imām of the Shī‘a Nizārī Ismā‘īlī Muslims (or ‘Ismā‘īlīs’ for short). As a Muslim leader, Aga Khan IV addresses salient issues concerning humankind in the contemporary world and expresses the challenges of living under such conditions through his public speeches and the institutions of the Ismā‘īlī Imāmate. His discourse is informed by the inseparability of dīn (faith) and dunyā(world), which is viewed as being a central function to the office of Imāmate. Aga Khan IV adopts a context-rich approach that addresses modernity by integrating commitments to theology with religio-cultural ethics, a formulation …

Confronting Sexism In Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math (Stem): What Are The Consequences?, Eden J.V. Hennessey

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Disparaging remarks that female scientists are ‘Distractingly Sexy’ (Waxman, 2015) and ‘Too Pretty to Do Math’ t-shirts (Amazon.com) highlight the common belief that women in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) violate perceived gender norms. However, by confronting these beliefs, women may incur a ‘double-dose’ of hostility; once for being present in science, and again because of the confrontation itself (Kaiser & Miller, 2001). Across three studies, this research tested how women confronting sexism in STEM contexts would elicit and anticipate social costs. Study 1 showed that male participants rated a hypothetical female confronter in STEM higher in bossiness and …

The Complexity Of Canadian Anti-Communism, 1945-1967, Ian Muller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation argues that the history of anti-communism in English Canada between 1945 and 1967 is more diverse and complicated than traditionally acknowledged. Often dispersed throughout the scholarship as elements of other Cold War topics, including espionage, state surveillance, and policing, anti-communism is the central subject of this investigation. A series of case studies are used to analyze individual encounters with the state and civic engagement with the domestic threat of communism. The unique politico-cultural approach of this dissertation will bolster Canada’s Cold War historiography by investigating both public and private manifestations of anti-communism.

The intersections of public safety, the …

“Inconvenient Neighbours, Whom It Was Desirable Ultimately Wholly To Remove”: Differing Factors In The Dispossessions Of Studied Anishinaabe Groups Of The Great Lakes Basin, 1820-1865, Heather J. Sanguins

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite being located within a relatively close geographic area, the Anishinaabeg of the eastern Great Lakes basin had different experiences of, and responses to, attempted and actual dispossession between 1820 and 1865. This research explores these experiences and the exercise of colonial power through the dispossession of six groups: the Lake Erie Anishinaabeg, the Walpole Anishinaabeg, the “American” Anishinaabeg who migrated into Upper Canada and Canada West, the Chippewa of Lakes Huron, Couchiching, and Simcoe, the Potaganasee Ojibwa of Drummond Island, and the Manitoulin Anishinaabeg. While eight themes weave their way through the cases, every case of attempted or actual …

Near-Surface Permafrost Ground Ice Characteristics And Ecological And Physical Drivers Of Transient Layer Ice Content In Discontinuous Permafrost, Jason Paul

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Accelerated climate warming in northern regions is causing permafrost degradation, leading to the reduction of the areal extent of permafrost. Permafrost is the foundation for many northern ecosystems and communities, so its thaw can have important ecological and societal consequences. Thaw of ice-rich permafrost can cause subsidence of the ground surface proportional to excess ice content. Terrain settlement can cause ponding or damage to infrastructure. Following a surface disturbance that removes much of the vegetation cover, a shift in the ground thermal regime can cause an increase in active layer thickness and rapid thaw of the top portion of permafrost. …

Venus In The Trenches: The Treatment Of Venereal Disease In The Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, Lyndsay Rosenthal

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the treatment of venereal disease (VD) in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). The Canadians had one of the highest rates of infection during the war with 15.8 per cent of servicemen being diagnosed with VD. These figures generated concern among Canadian officials about the negative impact this could have on both public health and opinion. Overseas officials needed to develop policies and procedures to control the spread of the disease. When strict disciplinary measures did little to address the issue, the military experimented with more lenient ones rooted in science and medicine. Even with these measures in …

Arriving Somewhere, Not Here: Exploring And Mapping The Relationship Between Border Enforcement And Migration By Boat In The Central Mediterranean Sea, 2006 To 2015, Kira Williams

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The European Union (EU) implemented a maritime interdiction network using search and rescue which interdicted at least 462,813 “illegal migrants” in the Central Mediterranean Sea between 2006 and 2015. This involved 15 discrete, militarised and semi-secret maritime interdiction operations (MIOs) at a minimum cost of 126.9 million 2014 Euros. In this dissertation, I will explore and map these operations and their geographies between 2006 and 2015.

First, and based on the given existence of the European Patrols Network, I examine how this network came into being in the first place. This serves to show that the EU purposely created regular …

How The West Lost Russia: Explaining The Conservative Turn In Russian Foreign Policy, Nicolai N. Petro

Political Science Faculty Publications

A decade ago many Russian analysts concluded that the West’s efforts to preserve its global superiority would be futile and the emergence of a polycentric world was inevitable. To benefit from this transition Russia should adopt a strategy that combined great power realism and “traditional” Russian values. This strategy, first elaborated in Vladimir Putin’s Valdai Speech of 2013, is known as ‘Civilizational Realism’.

This article describes the emergence of Russia’s new sense of self-worth, how and why Russia gradually lost faith in the West as a potential partner, and how, through the internal adoption and external projection of conservative multicultural …

Cellulose And Sulfate Degradation In A Biochemical Reactor During Treatment Of Mine Drainage, Sweta Ojha

Masters Theses

"Seventy-two biochemical reactors were set up, and operated using a mixture of chip-bark, horse manure, and gravel as the biochemical treatment substrate. The simulated mine water containing sulfate (1000 mg/l) was pumped into each reactor at a flow rate of 0.5 ml/minute (approximate), giving an empty bed contact time of 8 days. The main idea is that the microorganisms present in horse manure would convert the cellulose in chip-bark into volatile fatty acids. The produced volatile fatty acid would enhance the metabolism of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) initially present in horse manure, which would degrade (and eventually remove) the sulfate from …

Imaging The Subsurface In Eastern Part Of Lake Chesterfield Using A Combination Of Geophysical Tools, Jiawei Li

Masters Theses

"The Lake Chesterfield North Dam in Wildwood city, Missouri has been leaking, more or less continuously since the dam was constructed in 1986 despite mitigation efforts in 1988, 1994, 1995, 2004, and 2005. Neither the grouting efforts in 1988, 1994, 1995, 2004 or 2005, nor the placement and rehabilitation of an impervious clay liner in 2005 has solved the problem. Indeed, in June of 2017, the water level in Lake Chesterfield dropped at an alarmingly rapid rate.

Prior to authorizing additional mitigation work, the Lake Chesterfield Home Owners Association (LCHOA) decided to acquire geophysical data across the dry lake bed. …

Navigating The Teen Years: The Adolescent Brain And Christ’S Atonement, Mark H. Butler, Genevieve L. Smith

Faculty Publications

Like other spiritually sincere youth, Caleb struggles with pornography use. At first, he was repulsed by it, but he found himself drawn back to it. The arousal was preoccupying and pleasurable. Pornography use became a habit. He still wanted to go on a mission, marry in the temple, be a worthy father. Repeatedly, he resolved to stop using pornography. He felt anger and shame every time he fell short. Caleb became discouraged and felt like he could never change. He felt that he didn’t deserve God’s or anyone else’s love and forgiveness because of all his broken promises.